The Archaeology Of Stoke Park, Bristol
by James Russell
With additional notes from other sources
1) INTRODUCTION & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Stoke Park estate is situated on the northern edge of the City of Bristol, lying partly within the City boundary in the former parish of Stapleton and partly in the Northavon parish of Stoke Gifford. It occupies the picturesquely scarped and indented eastern flank of Purdown, a ridge of lias limestone and clay rising to nearly 300 ft above sea level and commanding wide views over Bristol, Kingswood and the adjacent Frome valley.
While the scenic and recreational value of the Park has long been apparent, it is only in recent
years that its historical significance has come to be fully appreciated, and in
particular the importance of the work carried out there in the mid 18th century
by the architect and landscape gardener Thomas Wright of Durham (1711‑1786)
under the patronage of Norborne Berkeley, Lord Botetourt. Wright's connection
with Stoke was first by Eileen Harris in the course of her pioneering research into the career of
this highly individualistic designer (Harris 1971, 1979). More recently research
in the archives of the Beaufort family at Badminton and Gloucester, carried out
by Messrs Stewart Harding and David Lambert, as well as by the Badminton
archivist Mrs Margaret Richards, has added greatly to our knowledge of Wright's
activities, as well as producing much new information about the general
development and management of the Stoke estate during the 18th century (Harding
& Lambert 1988, Lambert & Harding 1989).
Since December 1987 this historical research has been
supplemented by archaeological fieldwork carried out by the present writer with
the assistance of other BAAS members. A detailed report on the first phase of
this fieldwork, involving the excavation and survey of three ornamental
structures in the Park, the Rotunda, the Obelisk, and the Tomb of the Horatii,
has already been published (Russell 1988). Further work carried out during 1989
has included the recording of other garden buildings, a survey of earthworks in
the central area of the Park (Fig. 2) and the preparation of reconstructed plans
of the Park area in c. 1725 and 1768, using the 1st edition O.S. 1:2500 map as a
base (Figs. 3, 4). The present article provides a summary of the results of this
recent work. Research, both documentary and archaeological, is continuing, and
it is hoped that in due course a more definitive historical account of the Stoke
Park estate will be produced in which the information gleaned from archival
sources will be fully integrated with the results of field survey.
Berkleys accounts show that the rotunda cost £151 16s 3d for the Building Work and Materials. In 1756 £21 was paid to Francis Grinway, stonemason of Mangotsfield "for the Temple", and a further £21 to was paid to Wright.
Contemporary records record ye round
Temple, which consists of lonic Pillars supporting an Arched Canopy, and may be
about 15 feet in diameter. An early photograph shows a simple rotunda with 10
Ionic columns,
The rotunda cost £151 16s 3d for ;the Building Work and Materials;. Berkeley's
accounts show that £21 was paid in 1756 to Francis Grinway, stonemason of
Mangotsfield ;for the Temple;, and a further £21 to Wright.
The direction of Pococke's circuit gives a clue to the whereabouts of another
monument whose existence had not been suspected until his manuscript was
discovered: "We then went to a brow of a Hill, on which his Lordship has built a
model of ye Monument of ye Horatii at Albano, with four round Obeliscs upon an
arch'd building adorn'd with a Pediment every way. On ye Frieze round ye four
sides is lis inscription, 'Memoria Virtutis Heroicae S.P.QX On ye side upon
which ye Epitaph is inscribed, ye Monument has scarce any Access to it, which
may have some particular Mearting."
A survey of 1768 shows the structure on the hill facing the house at the
south-cast corner of the park. Its remains were known as ;The Old Owl House;
into the 1920s.
Berkeley, suffering financial embarrassment after a disastrous investment in
William Champion's brass works, became Governor of Virginia in 1768. He never
saw his garden again, dying of a fever in 1770. Stoke passed to his sister, and
was used intermittently as a dower house for Badminton, with the park being
maintained, until 1908, when it was first let, and then in 1915 sold, to the
Rev. Harold Burden as the nucleus of his colony system for the mentally
handicapped,
It passed to the National Health Service, but since the ending of the colony
system in the 1960s Stoke Park has suffered neglect and progressive
dereliction. In 1968 the Duchess's Pond was destroyed to make way for the
building of the M32 motorway, which cuts across the eastern part of the park.
But luckily the road is well engineered and less obtrusive than it might be.
The importance of Stoke Park is clear, but if the inspector does not include it
in the Green Belt a flurry of planning applications from the health authority
can be predicted. As Bristol City Council is pledged to refuse any applications
on the land, its future will almost certainly be settled by the Secretary of
State on appeal. It would be tragic if its future as parkland is lost just as its
glorious past had been rediscovered.
In the last few years uncertainty over the future of Stoke
Park has caused increasing concern to local residents and conservationists
alike. This concern, coupled with growing appreciation of the Park's historical
and aesthetic significance, has led in April 1989 to the establishment of the Stoke Park
Restoration Trust, which aims to promote the Park's preservation and, as far as possible,
recreate its mid‑18th century appearance. A preliminary report detailing the
Trust's proposals for preservation and restoration has recently been published
(Harding 1990). BAAS is represented on the steering committee of the Trust and
it is hoped that a continuing archaeological input from the Society will prove
of assistance when restoration work is commenced.
The writer would like to thank the other members of BAAS ‑ Messrs lan Beckey, Mike Baker, Andy Buchan and John Hunt ‑ who have assisted him in fieldwork at Stoke Park. He is also grateful to Mr Mike Stanbrook for sharing with him his extensive knowledge of tile history of Stoke Gifford and to Messrs Stewart Harding and David Lambert for making the results of their original documentary re search on Stoke Park so freely available to him.
(2)
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND (FIG. 1)
In contrast to other areas of historic parkland on tile outskirts of Bristol,
such as the Blaise Castle and Ashton Court estates, Stoke Park has so far
produced scarcely any indication of prehistoric or Roman occupation. The only
prehistoric find yet known from the area appears to be Bronze Age flint
arrowhead from Purdown, now in the Somerset County Museum (Grinsell 1969, 9). No
finds of Roman material are so far reported, although a number of Roman
settlements and burials are now known in the vicinity (see Fig. 1). From this
negative evidence it maybe inferred that, with its stiff lias clay subsoil, the
Purdown ridge held few attractions for early settlers and is quite likely to
have remained a marginal area of woodland d waste until well into the medieval
period. Strip lynchets and other field remains indicate that by the 13th century
the eastern side of the present park, where the underlying geology changes from
lias clay to Triassic marl and sand-stone, was being farmed by the inhabitants
of Stapleton parish. By the early 15th century there is documentary evidence for
a farmstead on the site of Wallscourt Farm, to the north of the present park (ST
61707801; Dahl 1934, 55, 61). It seems probable. however, that no significant `
settlement took place within the park area itself before the, erection of Stoke
House by Sir Richard Berkeley in the late 16th century.
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The Berkeley family gained possession of the manor of Stoke Gifford around 1338, following the execution for treason of John Giffard in 1322. The manor house of Stoke Gifford appears to have changed its location at least twice between the 14th and 16th centuries. The probable site of the pre1322 Giffard manor house was identified in 1984/ 85 during excavations in Parsonage Field on the west side of Great Stoke village (ST 62568003; Fig. 1,A; Russell 1986, 36). Local tradition (Dahl 1934, 51) coupled with the evidence of field names, suggests that the first Berkeley manorial complex lay further south, near the present Court Farm to the east of St. Michael's Church (ST 62307970; Fig. 1,11) and was adjoined by a small park, the subject of a dispute between Sir Maurice Berkeley and the local inhabitants in the reign of Richard 11 (Evans 1958, 3). It was this establishment which was described by John Leland c. 1543 as a ;Manor Place of the Barkeleys in Ruine, and a Parke Waulle; (Latimer 1889, 256). Finally, in the late 16th century, Sir Richard Berkeley, who succeeded to the Stoke estate in 1553, built a new mansion, the present Stoke House, on the edge of the Purdown escarpment at the southern extremity of Stoke Gifford parish (ST 62207725; Fig.1,C; Kingsley 1989, 176‑178).
There can be little doubt that the most gifted member of the Stoke Gifford branch of the Berkeley family was the last in the male line, Norborne Berkeley, Baron Botetourt (1717‑1770). Succeeding to the Stoke Gifford estate in 1738, he had within a few years set about the wholesale transformation of the woods and farmland around the existing Elizabethan mansion into a landscaped park. From 1749 onwards Berkeley was assisted by Thomas Wright. Born in Byers Green, Co. Durham in 1711, Wright had initially made his reputation as a writer and teacher on mathematical and astronomical topics. Despite a humble social background, limited formal education and a decidedly eccentric personality, Wright was able to secure the lasting friendship and support of several aristocratic patrons, including Norborne Berkeley's brother‑in‑law, the 4th Duke of Beaufort. Through these patrons Wright was able to develop and practice, in a semi‑amateur capacity, his considerable skills as an architect and landscape designer (Harris 1971, 1979).
As an architect, Wright's work was characterised by a playful
and idiosyncratic eclecticism; while capable of performing confidently in the
prevailing classical style, he was also a pioneer of the gothic revival, and
displayed a highly individual taste for intricate planning and the use of
strongly textured ;natural' materials, such as tree‑roots and rough stonework.
His garden layouts which, like many of his buildings, now survive only as plans
and sketches, combine elaborate planning with an appreciation of picturesque
informality, and occupy a transitional phase between the rigidities of the 17th
and early 18th centuries and the more austere naturalism of ;Capability; Brown.
At Stoke, Wright was able to refine and embellish the landscaping already begun
by his patron Berkeley, laying out new gardens, terraces and complex woodland
walks, as well as designing a series of ornamental buildings and monuments. He
also planned and supervised the complete remodelling of Stoke House, carried out
in stages between 1749 and 1764.
In 1768 financial difficulties forced Berkeley to leave
England to take up the post of Governor of Virginia, where lie died in October
1770. He was succeeded at Stoke by his sister Elizabeth, widow of the 4th Duke
of Beaufort, who carried on her brother's work of gardening and building,
continuing to rely on the guidance of Thomas Wright until the latter's death in
1786. Following the death of the Dowager Duchess herself in 1799, the Stoke
Gifford estate remained in the hands of the Beaufort family until its sale and
subdivision in 1915. Although during this long period considerable resources
were devoted to the rebuilding of farms and other improvements on the estate as
a whole, few significant modifications were made to either the layout of the
park or the structure of the house, which was latterly occupied almost
continuously by tenants. From 1908 onwards the house and grounds were leased,
and in 1915 purchased, by the Rev. H. N. Burden, who established there a
'colony' for the treatment of the mentally handicapped. This institution was
taken over by the National Health Service in 1948 and continues in existence as
Stoke Park and Purdown Hospitals and the Burden Neurological Institute
Utilitarian hospital buildings now line the northern approach to Stoke House,
although fortunately without greatly impinging on the landscaped park to the
south‑west. In 1940 a large anti‑aircraft battery was constructed within the
park boundary on the crest of the Purdown ridge (ST 61207640; Roberts 1981,
61‑64, fig. 2). Since 1945 the Lockleaze housing estate has encroached upon the
south-western corner of the park, while the M32 motorway, constructed in 1968,
now runs along its eastern side.
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(3) THE STOKE PARK AREA BEFORE 1738 (FIGS. 2, 3)
Comparatively little is yet known about the history of land use and
land‑holding in the area now covered by Stoke Park before the park itself was
laid out in the mid 18th century. The earliest surviving estate maps of the area
date from around 1725; they comprise a survey of the whole of the Stoke Gifford
estate made in that year by John Vascon (GRO D2700 QP 15/2) and a second,
slightly later map, of superior technical quality but lacking field‑names and
other captions, showing the demesnes of Stoke House on a larger scale (GRO D2700
QP 1515). Figure 3 combines the information contained in both these maps. It
depicts an essentially utilitarian landscape of enclosed fields and coppiced
woodland in which the only ornamental elements were the relatively modest
terraced gardens immediately adjoining Stoke House and two avenues of trees
converging on the mansion from the north. Barn Hill, to the west of the house,
was occupied by a group of farm buildings, dominated by a massive barn some 35m
long with two pairs of lateral porches (ST 62057731). To the south of this main
barn was a smaller barn or farmhouse, visible in John Wootton's early 18th
century view of Stoke House, now at Badminton (Harding & Lambert 1988, fig. 1).
Despite the field‑names ;Park' and ;Park Gate;, there is no evidence at this
date for an enclosed park with a defineable boundary.
In Figure 2 the field boundaries recorded in 1725 are
superimposed on a survey of the earthworks surviving today in the central area
of the present park. It will be seen that a number of banks and lynchets, for
example in the area north of the present Pond Field Wood (Fig. 2,D), correspond
closely with 1725 boundaries. Other earth works, however, seem to represent
features which had been abandoned by 1725. The most prominent of these are two
groups of strip lynchets, one on the slopes below the Obelisk on Star Hill (ST
61857713; Fig. 2,A) and the other further west (ST 61607710; Fig. 2,13). These
terraced features are the product of ploughing along the hillside in parallel
strips, probably during the earlier part of the medieval period. On the valley
floor to the south of the lynchets on Star Hill are further remains of
strip‑fields.
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